Basic Trope: Not all orphans are heartwarming.
- Straight: The Troperson family adopts a little girl called Alice. Alice has an unhealthy fascination with knives and kills the family cat and attacks her parents before being stopped.
- Exaggerated: The Troperson family adopts a little girl called Alice. Alice has an unhealthy fascination with knives and burns down the house on her first night there.
- Downplayed: The Troperson family adopts a little girl called Alice. Alice has an unhealthy fascination with knives and a few other creepy aspects, but she ultimately turns out well.
- Justified:
- The Troperson family is responsible for the deaths of Alice's parents in the first place, and Alice knows this, causing her to want revenge on her adoptive parents.
- Alice is bullied by the biological child of her adoptive parents until she snaps and becomes violent.
- Alice is The Sociopath and has begun showing those tendencies very early.
- Inverted:
- The Troperson family adopts a little girl called Alice. They all quickly grow to love each other.
- The Troperson family adopts a little girl called Alice. Jealousy over having to share his parents with her causes their biological child Bob to go off the deep end and become violent.
- Subverted:
- The Troperson family brings in Alice, who is an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette. She immediately goes into the kitchen and picks up a knife...because she wants to make her new parents a sandwich.
- Double Subverted: ...Or at least that's what she wants them to think.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged:
- Averted: No orphans appear in the story.
- Enforced: The author wants to write a horror story centered around the fears of parenthood.
- Lampshaded:Bob: Orphan, huh? Wonder how that happened...
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Here, Mama, I brought you something...[Evil Laugh]
